Archived Letter - 714

Dear Editor:

The political pressure group Wellington Climate Change Committee placed an ad in the Aug 15 Advertiser entitled "Municipal action on climate change" in which they attempt to influence our local politicians.  The problem is their ad is wrong.
Firstly, the UN organization they reference is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, not "International" as written.  Secondly, the attributed IPCC statement "many of the negative impacts of these (human caused climate) changes, extreme weather events, are already with us" isn't what the group say's at all.  Here is the official IPCC position as quoted from their Special Report on Extremes (IPCC-SREX):  Low confidence in attribution of any detectable changes in tropical cyclone activity to anthropogenic influences.  Overall low confidence at the global scale regarding even the sign of (flood) changes.  There is low confidence in observed trends in... tornadoes and hail.  Since the 1950's some regions of the world have experienced a trend to more intense and longer droughts... but in some regions droughts have become less frequent, less intense or shorter."
I would expect a group dedicated to influencing politicians and thus tax dollar spending, to be less flippant with the reality.

Jeff Cormack